A pseudo-change to avoid change. Some remarks on "Family myths" in Adam Ważyk’s novel

Abstract

The article focuses on Family Myths, a forgotten novel by Adam Ważyk, a member of the Kraków Avant-Garde. Zdunik analyzes “family myths” in the context of social changes that resulted from the First World War, as depicted in the novel. He discusses the reception of the work in relation to the historical and literary categories of a memoir and bildungsroman. This helps recognize the “family myth” as a cognitive category, which organizes the way the characters perceive reality, especially everyday family life. In Ważyk’s novel, the “family myth” has a similar function to its psychological counterpart, well known in the family systems therapy. In both cases, it helps come to terms with a difficult and neurotic reality. In other words, these conservative, traditional beliefs, or the eponymous “myths”, help one adapt to the ever-changing world. Paradoxically, however, the family myth plays a role in creating that very neurosis, as it traps the characters in their formulaic ways of perceiving the world, hampering individual development which is necessary to keep up with changing social mores.

To address this problem, Zdunik examines the story of two characters in Ważyk’s novel, Ewa Karcz and Karol Karcz. He calls the first myth “the myth of resistance to puberty”, as it shows how the female protagonist, despite her emancipatory gestures (running away from her family home, getting married young, getting pregnant), is unable to become an independent individual. In the case of Karol Karcz, the “myth of pseudoinitiation” is conspicuous in his becoming romantically involved with a maid, Zenobia Ożarowska. Karcz, however, does not opt for a mature relationship; he takes advantage of Zenobia, thus legitimizing male power